Roughly three thousand students wander the halls of Westwood High School every day, and a vast majority have mentioned the crowded hallway conditions as they struggle to get to their classes through the swarm. The congestion has upset and infuriated many students who responded to a recent hallway traffic survey, while others believe it’s not that bad. Most students reported the D-wing as the most crowded hallway at Westwood.

“Honestly, [hallway traffic has] gotten better since last year because some of the construction has gone away, but it’s still pretty bad,” Daphne Longenbach ‘23 said. “It wasn’t as bad [before] when we still had the portables. I think because the new math hallways only have an exit through the D hallway, there’s too many classrooms coming out through a single set of double doors. Maybe if the D hallway could connect to another hallway in the school, it would be easier for people to have more options of travel.”

The hallway traffic has raised concerns about getting to class on time, as many students expressed their claustrophobia and frustration at being constantly late.

“I feel that it is terrible, especially in the D-wing. The traffic not only congests people, making them uncomfortable but overall slows the time of travel for students going from classroom to classroom,” Dhruv Ray ‘25 said. “In the previous years, traffic was bad, but not this bad. I’m not entirely sure what the cause is but the poor circulation of hallway entrances, mass populations, and overall inefficiency could be the reason.”

Many incoming freshmen have faced difficulties navigating a new school with the traffic, pointing out how much hallway traffic has worsened since middle school due to the significant increase in the number of students.

“Hallway traffic was never really a problem at Canyon Vista, but I guess with more people comes more traffic and Westwood does have, like, the second most amount of people in the district,” Zachary Menendez ‘26 said. “I’ve been tardy multiple times throughout these first few weeks.”

Several students have offered solutions to help regulate hallway traffic. Commonly mentioned ideas include opening doors to the outside, teachers being more forgiving towards tardies, and emphasizing the importance of everyone walking on the right.

“I think that simply having larger openings that can fit more students would really help, [as well as] making the passing periods at least 6 minutes, and maybe doing a staggered release during the busiest times like lunch or the end of the day,” Eliza Hebert ‘25 said.

Although the current hallway situation is leaving many students overwhelmed, some are expressing hope that as students familiarize themselves with the route to their classes, there will be less confusion and chaos in the hallways in the future.